Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

ericneyman.wordpress.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 649 posts

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#171

Post by ImJamal »

texuf wrote: post #105
ivape wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind true believers often learn to live with a massive cognitive dissonance This is quite true. Taking away just the moral teachings is not true belief. Revelations is serious business stuff, the apostles watched Christ ascend from Mount Olive, it’s extremely trippy things. True believers are literally believing in wild shit. In fact, if you are true believer, you almost need to keep it hidden because it’s go…

Do you think it's weird that ethnic groups separated by thousands of years of evolution came up with completely different gods and forms of worship? If there was an omniscient being don't you think it would make itself known in a little more universal fashion? And isn't it strange that the institutions built around our current iteration of God are soft power structures that wield huge amounts of influence both financ…

Have you ever played telephone? Messages get distorted in a couple minutes. Thousands of years is plenty of time to be easily believe that people would deviate on various gods.

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#172

Post by lurk2 »

michaelmrose wrote: post #141
victorbjorklund wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not that easy. If we look at historical context we can see that for example in judaism they have this midrash: "The Holy One said, open for me a door as big as a needle's eye and I will open for you a door through which may enter tents and camels." Sounds familiar? The meaning of that saying in jewish context is that we cant really understand Gods abilities. Could the christian saying mean something else? Sure.…

In your example the saying suggests that a Camel going through the eye of a needle is an extraordinary event like a rich person going to heaven in the traditional Christian saying. It is incredibly clear and without nuance nor is there a reason to suppose it's an issue with translation. Its also consistent philosophically nor is it the sort of thing that the powerful would want inserted when they compiled works. If y…

> In your example the saying suggests that a Camel going through the eye of a needle is an extraordinary event

So is the Son of God descending to earth and being nailed to a cross for the sins of man.

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#173

Post by hatradiowigwam »

wiradikusuma wrote: post #55

I read many comments that essentially say, "Today's (how we practice) Christianity/churches are definitely not something he'd approve of when he returns". I live in the largest Muslim country in the world, and I'd say the majority of people also think that the "commercialization" (for lack of a better term) of their religion is also "too much". It seems people do have a "conscience" (for lack of a better term). But w…

> I live in the largest Muslim country in the world

Are you a Muslim? I have a question for you... if I crawled onto your doorstep beaten and starving, would you invite me in and feed you? I am ignorant of Muslim teachings, and I don't know if this sort of things is covered...that's why I'm asking you.

I'm a Christian, and if you crawled onto MY doorstep, I would be ashamed with myself if I did not invite you in and care for you.

If your faith urges you to help the helpless, and my faith urges me to help the helpless... why do Muslims and Christians seem so opposed? If the news is to believe, we're like matter and anti-matter, we can't be friends, and at some point it always devolves to violence from one or both of the sides.

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#174

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

Ekaros wrote: post #27
vel0city wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I have always thought that Jesus would not be too great fan of Churches as big buildings in general... Community centres probably, but the churches themselves... And specially not broadcasting it on tv...

Matthew 6:1,5

"Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. [...] And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full."

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%206&ver...

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#175

Post by freejazz »

ivape wrote: post #70
foxygen wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is so special about reality?

Purpose. That there was a purpose for all of this. If we believe there was no purpose for all of this, then what a hopeless thing. I just look at the erasure of Gaza and have become more and more religious, because my god what a hopeless end if this all isn’t saved at the very end. I feel that way about many of today’s ills. Purpose and hope, even if the answer is utterly magical.

> If we believe there was no purpose for all of this, then what a hopeless thing.

That's a huge leap that speaks to your own perspective. It's not some sort of objective fact. That there is no purpose and we are still here is in fact quite beautiful and amazing.

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#177

Post by vel0city »

hatradiowigwam wrote: post #165
vel0city wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The political party allegedly being the voice for Christian views has an extremely anti-immigrant stance, sending people to pretty extreme prisons for little evidence of doing anything wrong but being someplace with questionable paperwork. They want to eliminate school lunches. They're trying to massively downsize Medicaid. All to help wealthy people build bigger barns. Seems pretty at odds to the things Jesus taught…

I'm so happy that you put that scripture here(Matthew 25). I have an inner dialog constantly that involves a certain someone telling me that I did not feed them, shelter them, or visit them when they were sick or in prison. We are all so worried that if we give strangers(or immigrants) our food, clothes, and shelter - there won't be any left for us! I think we are worried about nothing. If we all pooled our tiny frag…

Matthew 14:

15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

A lot of people see this as purely a supernatural thing Jesus did. As if the pile of broken bread pieces just kept growing and growing out of nothing. Maybe that's what happened. But maybe it was also that so many saw the charity that was happening and were also so compelled to share what they had. I think both possibilities are supported by this scripture.

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#178

Post by teachrdan »

ivape wrote: post #125
texuf wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think it's weird that ethnic groups separated by thousands of years of evolution came up with completely different gods and forms of worship? If there was an omniscient being don't you think it would make itself known in a little more universal fashion? And isn't it strange that the institutions built around our current iteration of God are soft power structures that wield huge amounts of influence both financ…

I don’t think anything is weird anymore. The ultimate reality of free will is that you will always have the option to do right and wrong. If you don’t have faith, this privilege will be difficult. The human left to their own devices will always have a shifting sense of morality (turning a ship by 1 degree at a time). Faith was a gift to help. In terms of Christ, let me put it this way. Imagine your high school, and o…

> You may not directly see him, but the whole school would know about it, even if he was just there for 5 minutes.

My question would be: If the Bible was written by an omniscient and all-powerful God, then why does it have so many inaccuracies in it? Easy ones include a global flood that killed every animal on Earth. (Except for the two of each animal on Noah's ark, which would have overheated with so many animals in it, if it hadn't collapsed under its own weight first.)

But there are also internal contradictions between the four gospels of the New Testament. Why would God make his own books inaccurate? To me, that indicates they are not the product of divine inspiration but the written accounts of oral histories.

Your response may be that God introduced these errors into his holy books to test our faith. But at that point, isn't the answer to every contradiction and inaccuracy just, "To test our faith"? Is there literally anything that would change your mind, or is your faith just being tested even harder?

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#179

Post by NickC25 »

wat10000 wrote: post #90
ivape wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind true believers often learn to live with a massive cognitive dissonance This is quite true. Taking away just the moral teachings is not true belief. Revelations is serious business stuff, the apostles watched Christ ascend from Mount Olive, it’s extremely trippy things. True believers are literally believing in wild shit. In fact, if you are true believer, you almost need to keep it hidden because it’s go…

There’s “science doesn’t adequately explain the origins of the universe,” and then there’s “this particular middle eastern tribe had the right answers thousands of years ago.” I can see the former but the latter makes no sense.

None of it makes sense. That's why religious folks are "believers".
Post reply on HN